Many people talk about biblical illiteracy today, but what about God illiteracy, our misreading of God Himself? How do we fall into the trap of reading between the lines and seeing what is not there when it comes to God?
Professional Development
At the high school where I teach, we recently had a professional development session that focused on social skills. Ultimately, it was about helping students discover, strengthen, and grow in their own social skills, but first we took a quick look at our own areas of strength and areas in which we are less comfortable.
Later, I discussed this with my wife, also an educator, and others, and this led to a journal entry that a friend allowed me to share. This person is a successful adult whose childhood had its share of emotional damage. What follows are the actual words I have permission to post in this piece. It was based on my discussion of the professional development I described above, particularly the element of Communication, which was described in one of our slides as "Reading accurately and responding well to verbal and non-verbal cues."
Faith and Misreading God
I immediately thought of how good I have been at that stemming from strategic necessity in my youth and navigating my mother's insanity. But as good as I have been, I must confess I sometimes get it wrong. Take for example why I don't like it when anyone does something for me and why I hate celebrating my birthday and Christmas. Kindness, in my experience, never comes without strings, but what if I am reading between the lines what isn't there? What if, rather than reading people for my own protection, I simply took people straight on? And doesn't this lie at the heart of my distrust of God? I read Him, or rather, I read what I think are the clues about Him, but do not take Him or other people directly at their word.
And isn't this what faith is and what it means to walk by faith and not by sight? "Traduttore, traditore"* indeed. I translate everyone according to a system based on how to survive childhood with a severely damaged mother, but what if that is all wrong?
Jesus, this is one of my most raw and heartfelt prayers. Remove the scales from my eyes, call me to You on the water, help my unbelief, help me to risk pain and hurt to live by faith and in so doing be healed of the deep hurts of my past.
*Traduttore, traditore is an Italian expression meaning "the translator is a traitor."
Reading Through Lenses
Certainly the professional development session at my school bore fruit beyond what its presenters intended, but let's consider something here. Being able to read the verbal and non-verbal cues of others is crucial in maintaining strong relationships. If I cannot see from your unusual quietness that something important is happening with you and proceed to babble on and on about some trivial excitement in my own life, I risk hurting you with insensitivity and missing an opportunity to be a true friend. Yet I must be careful not to read between the lines what isn't there. In literary, philosophical, and theological studies, we talk of exegesis, which is drawing meaning from a text, and try to guard against its opposite, eisegesis, which is reading something into a text. As my friend's journal entry shows, it is entirely possible to read people incorrectly by interpreting their verbal and non-verbal cues through lenses that we have established and that may not be fitting for a given interaction. Are we reading our cues as they are, or do we process them through a filter that will confirm our preconceived notions?
As much harm as it can cause when we read incorrectly our human relationships, how much more damage results when we misread God? Taking God as He has presented Himself most fully in the person of Jesus Christ is indeed a risk. It involves setting aside our conceptions of Him that have been based on pain or fantasy, cold logic or wishful thinking, or even the false stories and erroneous teachings of others. It requires setting aside the colorful lenses through which we view things, even lenses that we think help us see clearly, and viewing Him and all His creation, including other people, through the truly clear lens of faith.
The art of listening does not come easily. I get the impression that many of us are typically queuing up our next verbal contribution while someone is speaking to us. I know I can be guilty of this. I sometimes have to make myself intentionally focus on listening to the other person for what it is they are sharing. A lack of verbal response may be the best response, replaced simply with a non-verbal communication to indicate 'I hear you'.
ReplyDeleteI think this can be a common obstacle in our prayer lives as well. The perception of prayer to some is simply the recite of rote prayers. Fr. Larry Richards is fond of reminding folks that prayer is supposed to be a conversation, a dialogue. That indicates that there is give and take. We need to be quiet and intentionally listen for what God has to say to us.
In the end, our lives are supposed to be a prayer in and of themselves, not just a segmented task to accomplish. So with that, I would challenge that true listening is one of the most vital and prayerful things we can offer in order to build the Kingdom of God during this life.
Beautifully said! Thank you so much for sharing this. At first, true listening may be an effort, but eventually you become genuinely interested in other people and what they have to say. This is the mark of the true learner and the person who has set self aside for others.
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